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Free Online Courses

Citizenship: The Interview
To become a U.S. citizen, a person must go through an interview with a USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) examiner. The USCIS examiner reviews the N-400 form to confirm the information on the form and to judge the English language abilities of the person applying for citizenship. Students preparing for the interview may fear that any mistake they make during the interview process will prevent them from becoming a citizen. This can place a great deal of pressure on a student. This course will help teacher’s prepare students for the interview so they will feel confident and improve their likelihood of success.
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Citizenship: The Literacy Test
Many people think of the citizenship test as a quiz of the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) “100 Civics Questions.” However, in order to become a citizen, an applicant must also demonstrate basic proficiency in reading and writing English.

The literacy component of the citizenship test changed in 2008. This course explains how the new test is administered, and provides ideas and activities for preparing students for the literacy test.
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Citizenship: The Civics Test
Teachers can get the content students need to pass the U.S. civics portion of the citizenship test from almost anywhere, including downloading a list of study questions and materials from the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) Web site. The problem for teachers is how to teach the content effectively so that students are prepared for the civics test. This course explains how the new test is administered, and provides teachers with instructional principles and activities they can use in the classroom.
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Print Resources

Citizenship: Starting a Citizenship Class
Learn how to evaluate the need for citizenship classes in your community, how to plan for them, the benefits of doing a pilot test to get started, and what kinds of resources are available to help you.
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Citizenship: Becoming a U.S. Citizen Checklist
Use this as a quick review of what you have to do before you become U.S. citizens: the general requirements, the N-400 application form, the interview, and the Oath of Citizenship.
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Citizenship: Benefits of Becoming a U.S. Citizen
Find out how being a U.S. citizen can make it easier for you to bring family members to live in the U.S., travel with a U.S. passport, vote, receive government benefits, and apply for government jobs.
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Citizenship: Things to Consider BeforeYou Apply
Before you apply to become a U.S. citizen, make sure you understand how much it will cost, how much time it will take, how it might affect your citizenship in your home country, how you might be required to serve in the U.S. military, and what could happen if you have a criminal record.
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Lessons

Citizenship: New Citizenship Test
Use this lesson to help applicants practice for the literacy and civics parts of the test. Contains the reading and writing vocabulary used on the actual literacy test.
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Becoming an American Citizen
The reading in this downloadable lesson introduces adult literacy students to the basic steps in becoming a citizen. The complete lesson also teaches new vocabulary, introduces the comprehension strategy of compare and contrast, and provides practice in sentence writing. From Level 3 of Endeavor, a reading series from New Readers Press, publishing division of ProLiteracy.
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Podcasts

Citizenship: Engaging Multiple Modalities in the Citizenship Classroom
In this podcast Lynne Weintraub describes how she uses published materials, visuals, objects, role-playing, stories, and songs to engage the many learning modalities of students in her citizenship classroom.
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Handout: Songs from “Engaging Multiple Modalities in the Citizenship Classroom”
This handout provides the lyrics and tunes for the citizenship songs Lynne Weintraub describes in the podcast Citizenship: Engaging Multiple Modalities in the Citizenship Classroom.
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Citizenship: Teaching Conversation Strategies in the Citizenship Classroom
In this podcast Lynne Weintraub describes why teaching students conversation strategies for the citizenship test is important. She models the process she uses for introducing the conversation strategy, and explains how students would use the strategy for the writing and civics tests, and the interview.
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Handout: Teaching Conversation Strategies in the Citizenship Classroom
This handout provides explanations and examples of how to teach conversation strategies in the citizenship classroom. It accompanies the podcast Citizenship: Teaching Conversation Strategies in the Citizenship Classroom.
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Student Interactives

Citizenship: Dictation Practice
This activity will help adult learners practice listening to sentences and writing them in English. They will listen to a sentence, write it on a piece of paper, and check their work to see if they wrote it correctly.
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Citizenship: Practice Reading Questions Out Loud
In this activity, adult learners will listen to a question, drag and drop the words that form the question, read the question out loud and compare it to what they hear.
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Citizenship: How to Become a U.S. Citizen
This narrated slide show teaches adult learners the process of becoming a U.S. citizen. They can watch the whole slide show, then go back and review any steps they want to see again. They will be able to print a checklist of the steps they will need to take, and additional resources to assist them.
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